Apparatus for conveying and elevating granular or other material



THER MATERIAL APPARATUS Foa oo NVSY ELEVATING GRAN'JLAR GR ING .um

Filed Dec. 14

vw k v e w w v w v i w ww w e e t w Q u k ww u k mw ARNOLD REDLER,

HTTURNEYS Patented Sept.l 15, 1925.

1 UNITED STATES i?AraN'r OFFICE.

ABNoLD BEDLER, or sHAnPNnss, ENGLAND.

l 7 APPARATUS roncoNvEYINe AND ELEvA'rING cnANULAD onfo'rnnrt MATERIAL.

Application led December 14, 1923. Seriall No. 680,613.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, AnNoLD Ranma, of Flour Mills, Sharp'ness, in the county of Gloucester, England, a subject of the"King of Great Britain and Ireland, have invente v certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Apparatus for Conveying-and Elevating Granular or Otherv Material, of which the following is a specification.

`This invention relates to apparatus for conveying `and elevating granular, 4pulverulent material, brokenl stones, or oth'er material from ships holds, bins, and other places.

According to this invention, I. rovide a bucket or similar type elevator an an open chain conveyor, to. convey the material to the bucket elevatorto be raised, characterized in that the driving gear is above the surface material and is conveniently reachable at anytime. This requires. that the chain shall have an idle portion extending to the top of Ithe hold or bin, although the only vpart which, is conveying is that at the bottom of said hold or bin. The conveyor chain trav'- els in a path outside the path of the bucket elevator, but is independent of the latter, its purpose being merely to feed it, the chain in 1ts upward path being substantially parallel I with the bucket elevator and clear therefrom,

the under run of the chain and the vertical raiser constituting an L-shaped arrangement, either along, or'partly along the face or the .back of the elevator, or at an inclination, orJ

the chain returning along any desired path,

partly vertically or horizontally. v

The elevator or conveyor may -work in a -casing or in the open, or partly enclosed or I `partly open.

The elevator'and conveyor can be xed'in position or the elevator can be preferably mounted so as to turn about a vertical-axis and permit the extension of the conveyor to "sweep the deck .or floor of the'ships'hold or, "other place; or the elevator an of the materialstoredin bulk, so that it is, free from any riskl of clogging by the said chain isbmounted in an openwork casing or frame. The under run of the chain of the chain conveyon or bin discharger is continued around a jockey shaft beyond the bottom of the elevator, and rises perpendicularly'outside the path-of the elevator buckets to asprocket wheel or the like above the top of the elevator. The said sprocket wheel returns the chain down outside the other path of the elevator buckets, until it reaches the openwork frame, where it passes along the upper track of theconveyor or bin discharger until the end sprocket wheel or the like over which it passes is reached, by which means the chain returns` tothe under run and so on, or it may return from the'sprocket wheel at the topof the elevator to the end sprocket of the conveyor by devious paths,

and if desired it may be utilized for one or more conveyors betweenthese two points.

The power istransmitted to the elevator in the iisualway, and is conveyed lto the chain at -any convenient point above the material stored in bulk when passing over a sprocket which can be used for that pur- The chain can travel un'mvered through the material and outside the elevator, or in a separate trunk around the elevator, or in the elevator trunk in whichever way is desired, and the elefvator can discharge through the chains or sideways in order to`allow the chain to travel outside. A

- The chain can be tightened at any point by means of adjustable sprockets or guides,

but in the arrangement shown in the ligure,

room is allowed for the -weight lof the chain to sag and tighten the latter at the junction of the conveyor to the elevator.' The return "chain will tend to free any choking at the vfoot of the elevator.

For soft materials, the conveyor can opened on the top in'the formof a bin discharger ywith or without increasing d1mensions between the upper and lower runs.V

For grain and granular materials, the top of. the conveyor can be covered and the sides opened, which must be down to floor level if.

it isrequired to'collecty at floor level. When the conveyor is fixedin position,'the size of the opening should preferably. increase towards the delivery (or elevator) end, in ordenf that the volume of material should be increased by added inflow as the conveyor travels along. Also it is preferable to allow is empty, so as to cover a greater area of action.

The drawing filed herewith is a diagram of one form of apparatus, made in accordance with this invention.

Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 is a plan view.

ay is the floor of a bin or bottom of the hold of a ship, b is the openwork casing or frame. If covered, the cover is curved or ridged at the top to allow the material on it to flow olf. c is the conveyor chain, d is the elevator, e is the driving sprocket for the conveying chain, f is the elevator drive, g is a motor which may be housed in the casing of the elevator, z is the delivery, which may be from either or both sides, or the delivery may take place through the links of the chain. The vertical portion'of the chain and the elevator is contained in the casing n which may be enclosed and which is provided with pivots n and n2, by which it is rotatablysupported by sides p of the ship or of a bulwark. The material `is carried by the conveyor chain to the ele'- vator. The s ace between the bottom of the hold a and t e deck or roof c may be full of wheat, and on starting the apparatus, the material will flow into the conveyor to be elevated. Tributary conveying chains gg (Figure 2) may be used-to feed the ldischarger.

What I claim and desire to secure by Let-` ters Patent is l 1. A' ship discharger comprising an elevator of the bucket type and a chain conveyor `acting separately, the chain. conveying the material to the bucket elevator to be raised thereby, characterized in that the conveyor chain travels in a path outside 'the path of the bucket elevator, the chain which is idle and non-effective in its upward path being substantially parallel with the bucket elevator, the chain returning along any desired path.

-2. A shi discharger as claimed in claim l, mounte so as to turn about a vertical axis and permit the rotation of the conveyor to sweep the deck or floor of the ships hold or other place.

. 3. Aship discharger as claimed in claim 1, in combination with tributary conveying chains utilized to cover the wider area of the floor, and collect the material for the i conveyor instead of having to shift the position of the latter.

4.l A ship discharger as claimed in claim 1, and a casing for said discharger.

5. A ship discharger as claimed in claim 

